Business Basics: How to do Giveaways!

Giveaways are a powerful tool for local customers to find your business through social media, BUT doing a giveaway incorrectly can actually end up hurting your business (and let’s be real, probably your ego too). They will expand your reach on social media to people who may not know you exist, and will help build relationships that may not have existed before!

Here’s 5 tips to help your next Giveaway crush it!

1. Always partner with at least 1 other business that has a popular social media presence! Reach out to businesses that are popular in your area, introduce yourself, and see if they would like to do a giveaway with you. Make sure you have all the details before reaching out (what day you’ll be doing the giveaway, who is involved in the giveaway, etc.)
2. Partner your giveaways with businesses who are attracting your same demographic. Most yard card businesses are attracting customers that are female between the ages of 30-50, so partner with businesses where people in that demographic want to go to, shop at, buy from, etc.
3. You don’t always have to give away a free sign! You can give away a fun basket (ehm.. have you seen our cute mini’s?), gift cards, cash etc. This will allow you to attract and engage customers who may think “they don’t need a sign any time soon”.
4. Don’t make it tedious to enter the giveaway! If you have too many rules to enter the giveaway you will get less people who enter (which means your giveaway is more likely to flop). The most common giveaways will have you follow their page and tag a certain number of friends. That’s it! Feel free to get creative on your rules, just don’t make it too tedious.
5. Don’t let your giveaway go longer than 4 days! You want to make sure there is an urgency to enter your giveaway or people will put it off and forget about it. At the same time, make sure your giveaway is longer than 24 hours or people may not see it in time to enter!

Remember, people love free things, so try to plan an awesome giveaway 2-4 times a year to help your page attract new customers. Take the time to plan out your giveaway, get businesses on board, make a fun graphic, write your caption and then post at your most popular time!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cira Long & her husband are the owners of a Northern Utah based yard card company called Smile Signs. Alongside her bachelors degree in Psychology, Cira has many years of experience in digital marketing, and has found a passion in teaching others how to successfully market their businesses through social media. In her free time, you’ll find Cira busy running and dancing around with her three little girls.